Parents, educators, and caregivers often need help in communicating desirable behaviors and reasonable guidelines to children. One such way of providing help is through the use of visual supports. Research has shown children prefer and benefit from the use of images in addition to the spoken word.
It has been proven that there is a direct relationship between increased self-esteem, reduced anxiety, and reduced negative behaviors when children understand their environment, know what is expected of them, and are provided consistent consequences. Research has also shown that a majority of adults fail to be consistent or clear with regard to discipline.
Visual learners are estimated at more than 60% of the population, which includes those with aneuro-typical profile, as well as those with autism, Asperger's syndrome, communication disorder, fragile X, attention deficit disorder, behavior disorder, learning disability, hearing impairment, language delay, developmental delay, brain injury, dyslexia, and countless others. Behavior is parents' and caregivers' most common challenge with children, based on multiple published surveys. Many legislators are currently involved with the issue of expulsion at the pre-school level due to behavioral issues. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), one in six children is diagnosed with developmental, behavioral, or mental disorders.
Due to the nature of autism spectrum disorders and some attention deficit disorders, much of what is referred to as “executive functioning” in an individual impaired with such disorders is believed to be compromised. “Executive function refers to a person's ability to plan, sequence, initiate, and sustain behavior towards some goal. Executive functions allow an individual to incorporate feedback and to make adjustments to responses along the way to the goal.” as defined in www.tourettesyndrome.net/ef.htm. For children or adults impaired with autism or the like, teachers and caregivers usually take charge of executive function by providing structured, sequenced events for the impaired individual.
Due to the nature of people with compromised executive functioning, “sameness” (i.e., consistency of activities, sequences of events, and other routines) is preferably adhered to as much as possible. Fluctuating from a planned sequence of events is not generally tolerated well from those with executive function deficits. Once a schedule is made for an individual, major effort is demonstrated by the individual and caregiver to keep it as close to the original schedule as possible. Choices are introduced only after substantial trust and success has been accomplished between the individual and caregiver. These choices often include pre-selected items on a board, such as pertaining to a snack choice or leisure choice (e.g., apple, cracker, pretzel, video, nap, and so forth). It is assumed that, by allowing an individual to select the type of video or snack he wants, he will comply to the more undesirable elements (e.g., cutting paper) set before him in the adult directed sequence.